Abel Tasman was a Dutch born mariner and navigator with the Dutch East Indies Company.

In 1642 he lead a two ship voyage to explore the southern and eastern oceans, looking for new shipping routes, minerals and spices for trade. He sighted the western coast of Tasmania, followed it south and back up the east coast.

He named the discovery “Van Dieman’s Land” after the governor general of the Dutch East Indies. He tried to navigate a particular bay on the south east coast but his ships were blown out to sea. He named this Storm Bay as he charted the coastline. He didn’t actually set foot on the land, a crew member swam ashore and planted a Dutch flag. Tasman formerly claimed the land for the Dutch in December 1642. His voyage continued to discover New Zealand, the Tonga Islands and some of the Fiji islands.

Tasman’s second Pacific voyage in 1644 followed the southern coast of New Guinea and discovered the north and north west coastline of Australia which he charted and noted observations of the land and it’s people. He named it “New Holland”.

Or Tasmania could have been French…..

In 1802 the Frenchman Nicolas Baudin observed the east coast of Tasmania, collected and named plant samples, interacted with the natives, even collected a variety of animals to add to Josephine Bonaparte’s zoo back in France. This French discovery is evidenced by the names in the area, Frecinet, Mount Baudin, Cape Tourville and Bruny Islands to the south. French expeditions made Europeans aware of this southern island but apparantly, Baudin returned to France reporting no desire for land already occupied by native people.

But Australia and Tasmania became British….

The British navigator, James Cook, had circumnavigated and charted New Zealand before sighting the east coast of Australia in 1770, spending time in Botany Bay where plant specimens were collected. He claimed Australia for the British and by later proclamation, Van Dieman’s Land was included.

The first British colony was established in Sydney in 1788 but it was only in 1803 that the British sent a party from Sydney to Van Dieman’s Land, fearing the French would lay claim to the island.

The party which included convicts, landed in the Derwent River beginning the settlement of Hobart. The island was valuable for timber and whaling and was considered remote enough for hardened convicts.

Obviously, Aborigines occupied the land for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. They were a distinct nation with similar cultures to the mainland tribes, but with some differences. I have read that Tasmanian Aborigines did not use boomerangs. The settlers took over more and more of the land with little regard for the indigenous people who were gradually hounded and killed. The last full blooded Aborigine in Tasmania, died in 1876, a woman named Truganini. Tasmania led the country in formal acknowledgement of injustices and efforts at reconciliation with today mixed blood indigenous people.

After months at sea, what did these European explorers and their crew think when they sighted this unknown land.

Yesterday we went out for a drive, to explore Tasmania’s east coast. We stopped at a couple of places on the way.

A secluded beach just outside Orford – Shelly Beach.

As we stopped for coffee at Swansea, on shore of Great Oyster Bay, overlooking Freycinet National Park, we decided to continue into the park.

Coles Bay is at the beginning of the National Park. It was overcast as we stopped to look at beaches, at the pink granite and the mountains. Luckily the weather cleared during the afternoon.

The rangers at the National Park Visitor Centre told us that fur seals were in the coastal waters and where to see them on the rocks. He also recommended bush walks and the best views.

At Honeymoon Bay the rocks and sand had a pink hue. From here we saw a family of fur seals, basking on the rocks and in the water.

One of the most popular bush walks is to the Wineglass Bay Lookout. We set off on the hour and half round trip, aware of the wildlife, the birds, the beautiful scenery and views as we climbed higher and higher through the bush. The view at the lookout was just stunning.

Freycinet National Park is such a beautiful part of the world. We made a spontaneous decision to stay overnight so we could explore more today. The Freycinet Lodge had cabins available so we checked in, went back to the convenience store at Coles Bay to buy toothpaste.

We made the most of the daylight, stopping at Sleepy Bay. As the sun set behind us, we walked around the lighthouse and lookout at Cape Tourville.

From our cabin balcony we watched fur seals playing in the bay.

I spent an hour at dawn this morning watching the seals again. They arch out of the water like dolphins, they swim with their flippers in the air and at times stop and look out of the water. There were dozens playing around in the early morning.

During breakfast, as well as various gulls, we saw white bellied sea eagles soaring and swooping over the bay, one catching a fish and flying aloft with it’s meal.

To the north of the park we drove to Friendly Beaches, down an unmade road. The Pacific Ocean crashed onto miles and miles of white sand beaches.

Our final beach of this trip was Spiky Beach, south of Swansea.

During out two day road trip, we passed walnut orchards, sheep farms, inland lakes with water birds and black swans.

We saw kookaburras sitting on a wire, sitting on a fence, also sitting in an old gum tree.

Several wallabies showed themselves, one jumped across the road in front of us, one jumped away across a parking area and one just kept on eating the grass as we parked and walked to a beach lookout. I walked past a smaller wallaby during a bush walk, he then jumped aside to partially hid in the undergrowth. There were other small marsupial things in the bush and across the paths.

The bush was alive with bird sounds and we saw parrots, wagtails, scarlet robins amongst others.

We will go back to Freycinet and also visit the other National Parks in Tasmania. We took only photographs and left only our footprints.

Things I have learned

~ I took a lot of photos yesterday, used up my iphone battery. No one at the Lodge had an appropriate charger, so I was offline today. It was actually good to just look and appreciate the scenery, to watch the wildlife and not worry about trying to photograph it.

Cornelian Bay is a sheltered cove to the north of the city centre, Queen’s Domain and Tasman Bridge. Our afternoon walk started on the beach, then along the coastal path past the picturesque and colourful boathouses that have been on this site for almost a hundred years. Although wooden buildings with a tin roof, they are connected to electricity and range from being flaky, literally, to ship shape.

The path meandered along the waterfront, at times backing on to the rocky waters edge, the beach areas covered in oyster shells. At other times the path rose through bush with glimpses of the water and the bridge through the trees.

The path continued underneath the Tasman Bridge that links the suburbs on the eastern shore with the city centre and western shore.

The first bridge to replace ferries was a floating bridge that operated for twenty one years. The curved bridge of floating pontoons was an intriguing design and engineering feat in the 1940’s. One section of the bridge could be lifted on two gantry’s to allow river traffic to pass.

The current Tasman Bridge was opened in 1964 as a four lane highway. A tragic accident in 1975 occurred when a ship went off course and crashed into the bridge, knocking out two piers. A section of bridge collapsed onto the ship, sinking it, killing seven crew members. Five others were killed as their cars plunged into the river from the bridge. News photos of the incident show two cars hanging precariously over the edge of the broken bridge.

The eastern suburbs had expanded when the bridge was built. After the accident the fifty thousand residents had to revert to a fifty kilometre trip to the nearest bridge, or again rely on ferries.

The piers holding up the bridge are no longer symmetrical. Due to the sunken ship on the river bed, replacement piers could not be placed in the original positions. It took two years to
repair the bridge. At the same time, an extra lane was added to the road, utilising the original pedestrian path, adding a new suspended walkway on the side.

As with other antipodean city bridges, the middle lane is a reversible lane, with signs and lights above each lane indicating traffic direction. This allows three lanes towards the city in morning rush hour, with two lanes leaving the city. This is reversed for evening traffic, with two lanes into the city and three lanes heading away from the city.

Things that I’d never considered before have grabbed my attention. I have become fascinated with the tides, with the estuary birds that occupy our waterfront, with their habits and antics.

The internet has been invaluable as I’ve researched and learned about the birds. But I’m a book person, so I’ve bought one book on wildlife in Tasmania and have found the local library.

I used to feed the birds in our UK garden, so I’m familiar with the sparrows and starlings that we see in the bushes and trees here. There are some tiny finches and wag tails that I need to research.

I expected to see gallahs, rosellas and sulphur crested cockatoos, the common Australian birds.

The waterbirds have been an education. Little Pied Cormorants sit on the rocks below our window and balcony, each day. They face the wind, sometimes with their heads tucked under their wings. They are lively birds who jostle for positions on the rocks as the tide comes in. They swim around on the water, dive for fish and crustaceans.

After fishing they sit back on the rocks with their wings outstretched to dry as their feathers are not waterproof.

The Little Black Cormorant is more of a social bird. We see them in flocks, swimming and fishing. When one bird takes off, the rest follow, generally flying in V shaped formations. Marine cormorants are commonly known as “shags” here.

At low tide we see Sooty Oystercatches wading in the shallows, foraging in the rocks. As I watch them, I can hear the sound as they bang their quarry on a rock, to get to the meal inside. Along with the Pied Oystercatcher, they move to grass banks when the tide is up. Another foraging bird is the Masked Lapwing. These long legged birds have a specific walk, sedate and precise. Yesterday we saw an egret for the first time. The bird is white. I caught it in shadow as it flew from the beach.

Seagulls are calm and flock on the sand, or swim in the shallows. The Silver Gull is a smaller version of it’s UK cousin and can be just as rowdy or menacing. Kelp Gulls are bigger in size, have darker wings and venture out on the water to fish.

I’ve been told that seals, dolphins and occasionally whales come into the estuary. One way to spot them is by the antics of the birds, who flock over the creatures and the schools of fish that have generally enticed the mammals away from the open ocean. Hopefully we’ll be lucky enough to see these creatures one day.

Meanwhile, I’ll continue to study the flora and fauna of my new home.

The above were my photos but here are some internet photos of the birds.